Pitchfork

Lester Bangs, we miss ye when yer gone. Robert Christgau, you need to pick up the slack. Rising from the ashes of the 1970s like some old, wrinkled, stinking phoenix, Creem magazine is officially back in action. Dedicating most of its coverage to crusty lumps of the past like The Stooges, Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, and Rod Stewart, Creem re-launched via the Internet at the end of 2002 to "rally The Faithful to what's real and raucous and riveting about rock 'n' roll." That a leather oxygen tank cozy, guys?

But seriously, folx: We'd like to reel in our famous Pitchfork-brand of irreverence for just one goddamn minute and measure the atmosphere of Rock 'n' Roll today: The Strokes, The White Stripes, reunions of MC5 and The Yardbirds, Eminem sampling Aerosmith, Audioslave, Almost Famous, Swedish garage-rock... holy shit! Detroit is the center of the universe, and Creem has its finger on the pulse of what's hip and relevant in music today! What in the world?

YES. So we at the Fork courteously extend a handshake to these buggered old sods, to which music criticism doth owe so much: Welcome back, you haggard freaks. Just don't go all fuckin' Blender on us, 'kay?

Creem originally hit the presses in 1969 to cover the burgeoning Detroit hard rock scene, then led by Iggy Pop, Mitch Ryder, and Grand Funk Railroad. Editor-in-Chief Barry Kramer, who died in 1981, called it "a rock n' roll magazine for the PEOPLE," and enlisted some of the country's soon-to-be most recognizable rock writers, including Patti Smith, Greil Marcus, Richard Meltzer, Cameron Crowe, and yes, the inestimable Lester Bangs. The magazine remained one of the most popular music publications for more than a decade, championing new bands and styles on both sides of the Atlantic before kids in the Midwest could otherwise hear them.

Creem favorites included Led Zeppelin, Kiss, The Pretenders, Van Halen, T.Rex, The Ramones, Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, R.E.M., The Who, Roxy Music, and The Replacements. During that era, Robert Crumb's Mr. Dreamwhip and Boy Howdy logos featured prominently on Creem's covers and represented the intersection of populism, counter-culture, and lowbrow humor with thorough coverage of rock's mainstream and underground. However, the magazine ceased operations in 1988 amid widespread criticism of style-over-substance and dedication to irrelevant classic rock bands (how the hell are Rolling Stone and Mojo still around, then?). Original Creem photographer Robert Matheu is leading the magazine's return to the newsstands this summer, after a fifteen year hiatus.